MILANO – The European Commission prepares to deliver to Apple a huge fine of half a billion euros for possible violations of European law, hypothesizing possible restrictions on competition in the music streaming services sector. He writes it Financial Times. The fine – reports the FT – should be announced at the beginning of next month, and comes at the end of an Antitrust investigation by the European Commission aimed at establishing whether Apple has used its platform to favor its own services over those of its competitors . In particular, the investigation – born after a formal appeal filed by Spotify in 2019 – sought to verify whether Apple prevented apps from informing iPhone users about cheaper alternatives to access music subscriptions outside the App Store.
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Single market rules violated
The Commission – the London newspaper continues, citing sources close to the dossier – will decide that Apple’s actions are illegal and go against the bloc’s rules that enforce competition in the single market. According to what was anticipated, Brussels should accuse Apple of abusing its position of power by imposing anti-competitive commercial practices on rivals, defining those applied by the tech giant as “unfair commercial conditions”.
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If confirmed, it would be the first financial sanction aimed at Apple (Google has already received a total of 8 billion), even if the Cupertino company in Europe has already been the target of the French Antitrust, which in 2020 inflicted on it a fine of 1.1 billion.